The back-to-school shopping season has come and gone, and now retailers are letting folks know how the critical month of August played out in the cash registers.
Why is August so important? Well, short of the holidays, it is a busy season for the urban shopping malls and suburban strip centers. And since kids have more of a say in their fall fashions than gifts to follow later in the year, it's a great tell-tale sign of what retail concepts are working out and which ones need to go back to the drawing board.
Thrifty, in general, is still in. Ross Stores
The high-end didn't fare well, either. May Department Stores
Traditional department-store chain Sears
In sum, there weren't a lot of jaw-dropping surprises, here. Folks are still turning to the discounters for good deals, spoiling their homes with refinance savings, and, it seems, just can't get enough of Sharper Image's electronic gadgetry. Now it's time to go back to school to apply all the retailing lessons learned over the summer.